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The author of the Redwall Roleplayer's Handbook
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Date Posted: 11:11:40 09/01/01 Sat
It has come to quite a few RPers attentions that many of the RPers here do not know how to battle RP. It's one thing when an RPer can't spell, it's another when an RPer has flat characters, and it is yet ANOTHER when an RPer is simply awful in anything with a sword, bow, etc. If you can't fight, for goodness sakes, don't PRETEND you can! I don't mean the RPers who write clumsily in battle, I'm talking the RPers that CHEAT HORRENDOUSLY in either an attempt to conceal their total lack of skill or an attempt to make every one of their characters immortal.
Point 1. Do we all know what a weapon is? Do we all know what the basic aspects of weapons are? You can dodge a sword stroke if you're unarmed, but not many of them, if your attacker knows what he's doing at all. You can possibly dodge a thrown knife, if it's not at very close range and you are VERY alert. If you are sitting and twiddling your thumbs..no, you can't dodge it. But you cannot dodge an ARROW! You'd have to be some kind of X-men to slide out of the way of a close-range (or even many long range) shaft and none of us are that here, are we? This is because arrows have a propulsion system called a bow. When an arrow is loosed, it is at very high speeds. Arrows can even (gasp) pierce metal armor. At close range, there is no way you can have any sort of protection. In fact, if someone has a bow, I'd just be nice if I were you. Archers are not second class citizens. They can kill faster and more efficently than anyone else and their stuff is not dodgable! Same with slings. It's common thought that the sling is a wimpy weapon. It's not. Slings can have almost as high of velocity as arrows and if you are hit by one, it will hurt. Doesn't anyone remember David and Goliath?
Point 2. You can only avoid so much. If you are fighting against someone who obviously knows their stuff, you will get hurt, no matter how good YOU are. Most people are nice enough not to auto you, but if you don't actually TAKE anything, it becomes very tempting. THIS KIND OF THING IS DISGUSTING: *Bobby swipes at Joey's abdomen.* *Joey blocks it and laughs, attacking Bobby's leg.* *Bobby skirts to one side, Joey's blade passing painfully the slack of his thigh. He thrusts for Joey's chest..then reverse at the last moment and slices under Joey's arm.* *Joey blocks it and...*
If you don't take hits, your opponent will either make you take them or leave. And some things you can't block. Exs a. If you're thrusting and your opponent sticks his blade under your arm - that HAS to be a hit. b. Unexpected twists should be hits at least half of the time - your character can be surprised. And on and on. Use common sense! You're not invincible and you're not omnescient. No one walks away from a battle unscathed if both opponents are above Dibbun age and skill.
Point 3. You can't have a hundred back up people. The general rule I like to keep in mind is: If you're playing to win, you can have ONE more person in the fight than your opponent(s). No more. And if your opponent decides to bring in one more of his characters to make it even, don't add to your own. Keep it even. NOW, if one of the RPers you're opposing brings in yet another character, I'd consider getting out of the fight. You can add one of your own characters to make it even yet again, but if it gets into a "one-up-manship" duel, get OUT of there or stop with what characters you have and try to manage. You won't get any proper fighting done in the frantic rush not to be totally outnumbered. If your character is a loner...don't bring in any more characters. If you're not playing fiercely to win, don't bring in any more characters. And for goodness sakes, if the odds are staked mile high against you...with your opponent posting something like *four beasts draw their weapons and come at Bobby*...RUN! GET OUT OF THERE! They obviously aren't interested in a fair fight and unless you have some kind of brilliant turnabout in mind, you are probably going to die. Whatever you do, don't do this! *Bobby sneers at the four beasts, swinging his cloak back to reveal a whole host of guerilla shrews!* That's not cool either, unless you ARE in a one on one and the interfering RPers shouldn't even BE there. Then you can use the guerilla shrews as a joke, and a warning, but not as a battle front.
Point 4. I love my characters and I don't want them to ever ever die or get hurt! That's nice, but if you really believe this kind of thing, keep your characters in a nice safe enviornment, as in, keep them in your own personal stories or just RP with friends who WON'T ever ever hurt your characters. But let's be real here. If you actually LOVE your characters, you'll let them get hurt. After all, you "need to know bitter to enjoy the sweet", right? I can understand not wanting characters to DIE, however. But let's look at that another moment. I agree that having a character die is a bad thing, but sometimes it happens. STILL....what character died? Was it one of those characters with a whole personality trait? Can't you just make another one of those in a couple of seconds? Oh, I just lost Joey. He was suave. So, I'll make David, who will take Joey's place and be suave. If you actually put development into your character, it's a harder loss, but if you're a good writer, you can move on and even make better characters. NONETHELESS, I might as well put in some provisos to keep your characters from dying, WITHOUT cheating.
1. STAY OUT OF THE WAY OF EVIL CREATURES! With all the "I am eeevvviiilll" characters going around, this shouldn't be hard. If you like a character, don't have him/her go up to and insult one of these evil characters. Don't talk to maniacs. Don't draw your sword on psychos. Just stay away. If your character is one of those noble types, then wait until one of these eeeevvvillll creatures actually does something evil...before putting your fluffy head into harm's way. Evil looks and evil "attitude" often doesn't extend to doing evil, unless you provoke them.
2. Don't make a business of making people hate you. If an insult is enough to make you start throwing daggers, then you're going to have a lot of enemies very fast. People will want to get you out of the way for their own safety! Not to mention there are a lot of other touchy beasts around here...
3. Accept hits. Don't make your opponents so desperate to cause you pain that they go overboard and just auto-kill you. For that matter, avoid magical healers (covered more below).
4. Don't have stupid ideas about honor. It's okay to run when you have a million things against you. It's okay to hide in the shadows if you'll get slaughtered otherwise. Heck, it's okay to plead for your life when you're trapped! Even if your opponent is a total twisted eater of legs like Moore or Klyo. You'd be surprised how many PKers would have spared their victims if those victims hadn't been so busy spitting in their face. You can plead with pathos and dignity and sometimes it will save you...or better yet, if you're good at speeches, you can make one. At the very least, you might get some help from nice onlookers.
And 5. BE A GOOD WRITER. By this I mean characterize, use full and good sentences, spell correctly, give your characters depth and emotions. You are much, much less likely to be PKed if you can write, because of the consequential respect.
Point 5. A word on healers and other outside interference. Because of the nature of this board, I can't say that magical healers are an absolute no-no, but there ought to be some kind of rules regarding them. I don't think it's fair for any healer to be able to merrily spend her mystical energy endlessly and on any wound. My personal feelings are that 1. Healing should exhaust, hurt, otherwise diminish the healer. 2. THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS YOU CAN'T HEAL! Brain or nerve damage, spinal cord severance, heart rupture, crushed or amputated limbs, eye loss, being run through the abdomen or chest, slicing of the jugular, arrows in the chest, throat, abdomen, decaptation, death, ETC! I don't care to know what kind of ridiculous things healers "fix" nowadays. Just use some common sense. 3. You CAN'T do it without permission. Some beasts don't like to be magically healed. Respect their wishes.
A word on herbal healers: Try to be realistic. Herbs can lessen blood flow, not seal up wounds, etc. Don't just be a magical healer in disguise.
And other outside interference: be careful. Don't interfere if you're not needed or it's an evenly matched one-on-one. And remember the nature of your interfering character. It wouldn't make much sense if a killing maniac nicely interfered on the side of a sweet little shrew-maid, would it? Whatever you do, don't be outrageous. Assist! Don't take over unless one of the opponents is incapitated and in trouble. Be backup until you are needed.
AND FINALLY, Point 6. THINGS AN RPER MUST NEVER NEVER DO COMBAT/PK-WISE WITHOUT DESERVING IMMEDIATE DEATH! Yes, that was a lot of capitals, but this is important. Some things are so utterly unethical or stupid that they must never be implimented.
1. If your opponent suddenly stops responding, he is probably off-line and thus, cannot respond. You MUST consider the battle paused. You can't construe his silence as anything but this. You can't assume his character is paralyzed and you can merrily slash the poor thing into pieces. No, no no no! This is BAD.
2. However, this proviso is nullified if your character does something like this: *Joey runs over to Sally, laughing, "DIEEE!!!" and cuts her throat.* BAD! You are not allowed to assume your opponent is comatose or mindless! Or, if your opponent IS comatose, you are breaking severe protocal (penalty: death), by killing her, not only in an underhanded and dispicable way, but without a hint of creativity, intellegence, or grammer in your auto-kill! If your opponent then accepts your stupid, evil move and you are so foolish as to hang around, or so unlucky as to be booted offline before you can leave, every RPer on the board has an equal right to fire as many crossbow bolts into that character as they please. You're allowed to have evil characters, but not offensively stupid and rule-breaking ones. We are doing you a favor by not letting you get away with it.
3. In case I didn't hammer this to death in the last post: killing sleeping or crippled characters when the owner is not around (some characters sleep at the hall, you know) is even worse than killing battle suspended characters and the immediate death consequence applies.
And that's all (for now).
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